Pender woman integral to success of school program

When earning her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Tulsa, she helped set up a school-based nursing program in a remote area near an American Indian reservation.

By Si CantwellSi.Cantwell@StarNewsOnline.com

Beth Deaton was born in the Panama Canal Zone. After she was married, she went back home to work as the only school nurse in a 50-mile radius.Her mother had been a school nurse in Panama.When earning her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Tulsa, she helped set up a school-based nursing program in a remote area near an American Indian reservation.She was the nurse practitioner for Wilmington Health Access for Teens when WHAT was getting started in 1996.All of which was excellent preparation for her role in helping set up the Pender Alliance for Teen Health, or PATH, which will soon open a health care center at a school in western Pender County.Deaton, who works as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Cape Fear Pediatrics, was part of a small group of medical professionals, school officials and local residents who formed PATH, according to her nomination for this profile, part of the annual StarNews series honoring local unsung heroes.The nomination was written by Beth A. Glaglione, PATH's executive director, and signed by a dozen PATH supporters.This spring, PATH will open a clinic in a new modular building at West Pender Middle School, between Burgaw and Atkinson. It will have three exam rooms, offering medical services to students whose parents may have difficulty getting them to doctors in Burgaw or Wilmington."She is the brains behind the health center, and I got lucky it landed here," said Edie Skipper, principal of West Pender Middle. Some 80 to 85 percent of its students are on free or reduced-prices lunches, which makes them among the neediest students in the Pender County school system.Bringing health care access to that area is vital, said Kim Collins, lead school nurse for Pender County Schools."Many of the kids get sick because they wait until something is really bad to get help," she said.Parents may not have time or transportation to take their children to distant clinics.Deaton, 57, can't wait until the center opens, probably early in the spring."This has been one of the most exciting things I've ever done," she said. "It's the dream of nurses."She said the concept has been around for years. But she believes now is "the right time and place.""Health care reform has everybody mindful that access to health care is important," she said.The Pender County school board voted unanimously to OK the project."Eighty percent of the parents said they would enroll their children," Deaton said. "We couldn't have picked a better school to get up and running."Art students at the middle school have turned discarded political yard signs into signs welcoming the clinic, and they'll decorate the clinic's walls.On Tuesday, Deaton learned that PATH will receive a federal grant of $500,000, which will help expand the program beyond West Pender Middle School."It opens the door to opening other centers, and to help provide the services that are needed," she said. "It's wonderful."